At this point in his life, Shin still hated his mother and blamed her for trying to escape rather than feeling shame for betraying her. According to the book, his only standard for what life could be like was the camp itself—therefore, he couldn’t understand his mother’s desire to return to the outside world. However, since 2015, Shin has stated that he did have some knowledge of the outside world—he was taught about surrounding North Korea and the Kims, and therefore wasn’t as naïve as he’d claimed. Perhaps Shin exaggerated the isolation of his camp because he wanted to strengthen the point that he had no sense of normal human society, and therefore, no sense of right and wrong.